SF Immigration Law Firm Honored with Super Lawyers Pro Bono Award

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, February 20, 2013 (Press-News.org) A San Francisco Immigration Law Firm continues one of its busiest years with two impressive, but very contrasting achievements. Just after Pearl Law Group was named "Immigration Provider of the Year" for its corporate representation by a panel of judges from Fortune 1000 companies, this month the firm was honored with the Pro Bono Award from Thomson Reuters' Super Lawyers for its dedication to community service.

Serving their corporate and institutional clients has brought Pearl Law Group other notable industry accolades, including ranking in the top band of Chambers USA and inclusion in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyer/ Best Law Firms. In keeping with founder and managing attorney Julie Pearl's message of "treating every client like a family member or friend who deserves candid, thorough guidance and care," the Super Lawyers award has proven that even small firms can aim high enough to achieve both corporate and community recognition. Focusing on this 'Golden Rule,' has motivated Pearl Law Group's attorneys to spend 50-60 hours each year on pro bono work - about 8 cases per attorney - because they believe it is their professional obligation to serve those less fortunate.

In one of these cases, Pearl Law Group successfully rescued a father of two young children with immune system disorders from deportation back to El Salvador by working with the federal government to stay the deportation. In another, they helped an elderly Chinese woman obtain a visitor visa to visit her grandchildren. One of the firm's partners is currently helping a woman with the HIV virus to lawfully remain in the U.S. to care for her two minor children, while another partner is helping an Indian humanitarian and founder of an innovative NGO to conduct workshops and lectures around the U.S. Following the August 2012 memo from President Barack Obama establishing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the Pearl team has set up a pro bono DACA program for eligible candidates in the San Francisco area.

All of this also serves to prove the point made in the book, The Moral Advantage: Getting Ahead in Business by Doing the Right Thing (Stanford University Project on Good Works, 2004) in which a chapter was dedicated to Pearl for the moral compass she uses to drive her corporate practice forward: doing well comes from doing good. Pearl is a strong proponent of moving the legal profession into fixed fees, so that the client perceives no conflict of interest (the lawyer who takes longer to do a case well shouldn't be paid more) and for more open client communications (more information from clients comes forth when the clock isn't ticking). She maintains that the flat fee structure at her firm helps her attorneys to be both better lawyers and have more time to help deserving causes.

The Super Lawyers Pro Bono Award included a sizeable cash award, which Pearl Law Group is donating to Project Sandy Far Rockaway, to help restore the New York community which suffered greatly from Hurricane Sandy.

About Pearl Law Group (www.immigrationlaw.com/)
Since 1995, Pearl has pioneered award winning approaches and technology for managing employer immigration programs, as well as I-9 and E-Verify services. With over 1,200 immigration professionals in 40 gateway cities serving Pearl clients on demand (www.abil.com), the firm offers the best of both worlds: unsurpassed resources with personal attention. For consistency of quality and other recognized advantages, Pearl was awarded "Immigration Provider of the Year" (EMMAs-Americas 2012) by the Forum for Expatriate Management's panel of judges from esteemed international corporations.